Indio

Located at the edge of the Mojave Desert, Shadow Hills offers a mix of quiet rural and suburban living between Indio and the Coachella Valley Preserve. Indio started as a railroad town but later developed into an agricultural powerhouse specializing in date farming; Indio’s Shadow Hills community continues to offer rare greenery amid the desert climate of the Inland Empire. Residents of Shadow Hills live in sight of the wide-open desert and distant mountains, in a city whose world-class celebrations of art and culture earned it the nickname “City of Festivals.” Homes in Shadow Hills are primarily single-family detached houses on open streets and in gated communities, with a collection of condos and mobile home communities. A mix of spacious ranch-style and Spanish-colonial-style homes sit on the more open rural desert streets. The main Shadow Hills Country Club community is primarily designed with stucco walls and soft arches of the Spanish and Mediterranean architectural styles. Unit sizes range from 1,600 to 2,900 square feet, with date palms and other desert foliage furnishing the sides of avenues and cul-de-sacs. Shadow Hills’ homes vary in price from $45,000 for mobile homes to over $1 million for multiple-story residences, many of them complete with pools and verdant back yards. The Desert Sands Unified School District serves the area, and students attend Richard Oliphant Elementary School – given a B rating by Niche – as well as the B-rated Desert Ridge Academy Middle School and the B-plus-rated Shadow Hills High School. Shadow Hills High is ranked among the top 190 of California’s nearly 1,730 public high schools in teaching quality, as well as among the top 355 for athletics. This school places a heavy emphasis on college readiness, hosting college and career fairs to provide its students with plenty of opportunities for post-school success. Shadow Hills Country Club was designed to incorporate desert plant life and landscapes. Its 18-hole course is not only accessible to golf players of any skill level but also a part of a conservation effort to protect local resources and wildlife habitats. This club is complete with a restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, ensuring that members can enjoy a meal “al fresco” before or after a game. The nearby Coachella Valley Preserve is home to many hiking trails and desert oases. Nature lovers can relax under fanning palm leaves beside the oasis pond in the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve. Indio is renowned for the festivals held in its limits, most famously the Coachella Arts and Music Festival. Excellent live music performances from the likes of Bruno Mars and Beyonce dazzle tens of thousands of attendees every year, a tradition carried on – almost uninterrupted – since 1999. Shadow Hills is strictly residential, but the nearby Palm Desert houses shopping centers for the essentials. Locals can head to the Marketplace on Varner Road and stop at regional chains like Stater Bros to stock up on groceries, get some classic comfort fare at Coco’s Bakery Restaurant, or beat the desert heat with Lappert’s Ice Cream, offering a mix of soft serve, milkshakes and shaved ice. Proximity to Interstate 10 gives Shadow Hills residents access to the best of the Coachella Valley.

Just a mile from the Coachella festival campgrounds sits Polo Club, a residential neighborhood in Indio, California, that offers a quiet oasis for those wanting to spend their days swimming laps in the pool, hiking to see bighorn sheep or enjoying the desert weather. Gated communities here offer residents an active social life. With everything from karaoke nights to book clubs and cycling classes, Michael Fogarty, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker and a resident of the community, says, “It’s exceptional, simple living." Many residents live in one of the area’s gated desert communities, like Trilogy at The Polo Club. Developed by Shea Homes in 2013, this 1000-home development is expected to be finished in 2024. While most homes here are designated for residents aged 55 and older, roughly 200 houses are non-age restricted. Prospective buyers can choose from Trilogy’s single-family and single-story detached and duplex options, which feature two to three bedrooms and range in size from 1,542 to 2,367 square feet. The average listing price varies from $500,000 to $1 million, depending on the age, size and location of the property. Houses here don a contemporary feel with open layouts, glass sliding doors and smart technology spaces. Private properties outside of Trilogy range in style from modern two-story designs to ranch-style dwellings and range in price from $471,000 to $3.6 million. “Polo Club is within the renewable-focused Imperial Irrigation District, which makes energy bills cheaper than in places like nearby Edison,” Fogarty adds. As such, a lot of the homes also feature solar panels. The Polo Club, a 25,000-square-foot adult country club, is one of many amenities located within the Trilogy community. Offering members an array of outdoor and indoor activities, the club gives residents a place to challenge their neighbors to a game of tennis or pickleball, a sport Fogarty says has “taken the desert by storm.” For a taste of luxury, Trilogy’s resort pool includes private cabanas and food service delivered directly to the poolside. The club also houses an interactive teaching kitchen, artisan studio and game rooms. For time outdoors, residents can choose from one of the nineteen parks scattered throughout the community, or just a 7-mile drive from Polo Club is Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park, a 710-acre recreational and campsite area. Visitors can spend the day hiking while watching the bighorn sheep climb up and down the mountainous terrain or opt to take in scenic views of the lake while enjoying various activities like horseback riding, beach volleyball and fishing. Decorative palm trees line the parking lot at the Citrus Plaza, a shopping center just 4 miles from Polo Club. Coffee aficionados will love their proximity to The Vintage Coffee House, a locally owned cafe nominated for best independent coffee shop in the Coachella Valley by readers of the Coachella Valley Independent. Locals get their groceries at Ralphs Fresh Fare, and those who want a unique dining experience can head to Tack Tavern, an American fare restaurant complete with saddle-turned-stools. Indoors, the restaurant brims with equestrian history, while outside, it offers patio dining al fresco. Students here attend schools within the Coachella Valley Unified School District, which receives an overall rating of C-minus from the educational review site, Niche. Known for focusing on dual language immersion and migrant education, the district also boasts a student-teacher ratio of 21-to-1. Students can attend Mountain Vista Elementary School for kindergarten through sixth grade, Cahuilla Desert Academy for seventh and eighth grades and Coachella Valley High School for ninth through twelfth. All three schools offer gifted programs and receive a rating of C-minus or higher from Niche. While bus routes are available, Polo Club is a primarily car-dependent area. Residents wanting to explore other cities can drive to the Palm Springs International Airport, which is around 28 miles away via Interstate 10. Locals can take that same route and California 60 to Los Angeles, which is about 130 miles away. Healthcare workers enjoy being less than 8 miles away from Eisenhower Medical Centre. Music lovers living in Polo Club are less than two miles away from Stagecoach and other music festival grounds.